Outgunned graft busters look to reform from the top

=But the latest performance records of the two agencies may have prompted those interested in anti-corruption issues to raise their eyebrows with disbelief: why have they been so sluggish in tackling the problem – often dubbed “a cancer” in the country?

The most updated 2013 performance report of the NACC shows that the commission accumulated 10,692 corruption cases during that budget year. At the end of year, it managed to wrap up investigations against 2,200 cases. But it succeeded in ruling on crimes against a mere 96 cases.

Looking at the PACC’s performance records, the number of successful cases is no less unimpressive.

The PACC said since it was established in 2008 to chase after low-ranking state officials, over 19,000 corruption cases have flooded its office. Over the years, the PACC has managed to complete investigations into 9,000 cases – and yet 200 is the number the commission has managed to pinpoint for lawbreaking.

If these performance figures were enough to raise eyebrows, there’s more to come: the PACC has confirmed that only four cases so far have reached the inside of a courtroom.

During a recent interview with The Nation, PACC secretary- general Prayong Preeyachitt conceded the problem might be way beyond officials’ power to deal with it.

“My officers have been working non-stop, but with only four cases sent to court, you can see that it hardly affects – or changes – anything for the better,” said Prayong.

Prayong is so right to say that corruption has spurred ahead and grown more complex nowadays, and it is time for concerned agencies to adjust themselves to the new challenges.

In fact, his agency has been trying hard and doing better thanks to back-up from the military government, which helped strengthen its power to chase after the heads of state agencies who failed to suppress corruption.

The NACC itself seems to have realised the situation as well, coming up with a critical amendment to its anti-corruption law. From now on it will demand the utmost penalties be given to high-ranking state officials as well as political office holders found guilty of serious corruption. The law has also been extended to foreign state officials or personnel of foreign organisations, as well as bribers – the first time in the country’s anti-corruption history.

But as the chiefs of the two principal anti-corruption agencies have realised, corruption may have been way beyond their power; indeed, to fight against corruption, a major reform may not yet be enough for just these two agencies.

The latest version of the draft charter provides a ray of hope that corruption can be tackled more seriously by political office holders, one of the most problematic figures in the country’s corruption challenge as they have direct influence over state offices.

The charter bans politicians who have committed serious corruption from entering politics for a lifetime, a punishment that has become controversial and heatedly debated so far and is yet to see a happy ending for any concerned party.

Still, all these efforts are falling apart despite the concerned parties’ efforts to close all the loopholes. At the recent seminar held by the anti-corruption committee of the National Reform Council (NRC), it was agreed that probably the two agencies needed to integrate their work – as well as working along with other agencies to suppress corruption more effectively.

But to be able to do so, what we probably need most is a new compass that can help guide us in the same direction. We need a comprehensive, national strategy where all efforts of prevention and suppression against corruption are put together to fight against this growing cancer, something that is still lacking regardless of all attempts.